BOSTON – High above South Station, a construction mishap sent a giant steel beam plummeting hundreds of feet below, smashing two windows along the way.
The beam got lodged on the ninth floor and didn’t hit the ground. If that beam kept going, fire officials say it would have landed on a walkway to the platform where commuters are busy traveling.
“Thank God that there are no injuries,” said Boston Fire Deputy Chief James Greene. “It’s a busy afternoon so certainly a dangerous situation but we’re lucky.”
Inside South Station, you could see the beam dangling above the walkway.
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“Construction is a tough job,” said Patrick Sullivan who works in the area. “I’m a union plumber and ironworkers are probably up there and it’s probably pretty scary to them and devastating to probably see that get away from them.”
As crews worked to safely cut the beam and remove it, a side entrance to the station was closed off forcing commuters to divert.
That was the least of commuters’ worries, considering the close call. “Thank God no one was hurt, and hopefully something like this doesn’t happen again,” said Hayley Richards, who works in the area.
Officials say OSHA is investigating why the beam fell. In a statement, the contractor Suffolk said, “The safety of our workers and communities is our number one priority, so we are currently investigating the cause of the incident.”